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On long-term homelessness, Pawlenty misses goal

Barely a year into his first term, Gov.
Tim Pawlenty set out to end long-term homelessness in Minnesota by
2010, an audacious-sounding goal that he insisted was "very real
and attainable."

"Our homeless population in Minnesota isn't so large that we
can't solve the problem in the near and intermediate term," he
said in his January 2004 State of the State address.

Almost six years later, the problem remains. The two-term
Republican governor's plan to create housing for the persistently
homeless has stalled, with 1,500 of an estimated 4,000 long-term
homeless housed and little development this year. Meanwhile,
advocates say more people are becoming homeless as the recession
and its aftereffects chew into once-stable lives.

Minnesota's homeless population grew 4 percent last year in
estimates from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development, even as homelessness dropped slightly nationwide.
National advocates said they expect this year's numbers to continue
to grow; Minnesota officials are waiting for results of a statewide
survey done in October.

Pawlenty said there's a simple reason he hasn't fulfilled the
goal: the recession.

"It's unrealistic for even the most passionate advocates to
think that everything could just stay the same when you have the
worst economic crisis in the country in 40 years," he said. "So
some adjustments had to be made."

Pawlenty, now a potential Republican presidential candidate,
stood out among the nation's governors with his businesslike
approach to then-President George W. Bush's priority of ending
long-term homelessness. Starting in 2004, the Minnesota governor
put cabinet members on the job, committed state bonding money and
recruited donors to the cause.

"I just don't remember other governors doing it in such a
concrete, planful way," said Neil Donovan, who heads the National
Coalition for the Homeless.

The idea behind Minnesota's plan was to create supportive
housing for the homeless, giving them rent subsidies and services
ranging from case managers to mental health counseling and chemical
dependency treatment to get at the roots of their problems. The
state has sunk $215 million into the initiative to date, with
smaller amounts of outside money coming from the federal government
and private donors.

Monica NilssonAP Photo/Craig Lassig

Advocates say supportive housing is effective and saves public
money, even though it requires upfront investment. A 2007 study in
Hennepin County found annual savings of $13,000 for each of six
troubled homeless people. Before they were given subsidized housing
and services, they landed frequently in jails and shelters.

Pawlenty's administration topped its yearly goals from 2004 to
2008 for commitments to create new supportive housing units, before
making almost no progress this year.

Laura Kadwell, the state's director for ending long-term
homelessness, said the recession dried up investment in tax credits
used to pay for new units. Money for services, always hard to come
by, got even tighter. Kadwell said the economic meltdown also
stymied efforts to open 1,000 units that were funded on paper in
2008 but not yet developed.

A researcher at the social services nonprofit Amherst H. Wilder
Foundation, which conducts the homelessness survey every three
years, said the recession has made it harder to lift people out of
chronic homelessness as foreclosures have eaten into housing for
low-income renters. But Greg Owen said housing the long-term
homeless was getting tougher even before the economy fell apart
because of high rates of mental illness, substance abuse and other
problems.

"They had hoped for a more rapid decrease in the number of
homeless people, certainly a more rapid housing of persons in that
category of chronically homeless," Owen said of Pawlenty's
initiative.

Minnesota is getting some help from the federal stimulus,
including $23.5 million to prevent homelessness, $16 million for
short-term emergency assistance and $15 million to keep families
from becoming homeless. Advocates said most of the help won't reach
the long-term homeless because it's aimed at those who recently
lost their homes or are at risk of homelessness.

Faced with a massive budget deficit this year, Pawlenty
eliminated state funding for a health care program used by many
homeless adults and cut off $15 million worth of emergency aid to
help the homeless and those at risk.

Advocates said Pawlenty's move to eliminate the General
Assistance Medical Care program next March, for a savings of nearly
$400 million, hurts the homelessness initiative.

The GAMC program helps many homeless people with serious mental
illnesses get prescription drugs. Monica Nilsson, director of
outreach at St. Stephen's Human Services in Minneapolis, said some
are now stockpiling their medications or weaning themselves from
the prescriptions.

"If you want to not end long-term homelessness, this was a
pretty good idea for it," Nilsson said. "Because if you want to
see a lot more people walking around downtown talking to
themselves, take away their antipsychotics."

Kadwell said Minnesota almost certainly won't meet its goal of
creating 4,000 supportive housing units by the end of 2010. She
said state housing officials will revise the homelessness plan next
year after results from the statewide survey are in next year.

Right now, Kadwell said officials don't know how many of those
made homeless by the recession will stay on the streets long enough
to fit the government definition of chronic homelessness - lacking
permanent shelter for more than a year or four times within three
years.

"The state is not abandoning or backing down on this
commitment," Kadwell said. "We just don't know exactly what form
it's going to take and when we'll know."

For those who have lived on the streets for years, getting one
of the subsidized supportive housing units isn't easy.

Ahmed Nur, a 29-year-old Minneapolis man, has been trying for
months. Nur has been homeless on and off since 1998, most recently
since early 2008. He has a temporary place to live as he goes
through treatment for alcoholism but has been waitlisted in the
search for his own apartment. He spends many of his days at the
downtown public library.

"I would be glad to have a roof over my head so I could go to
work," Nur said. "I could take a shower - like, I don't know,
have a clean place to live. It would be great."